Vuko Perovich v. United States
| Decision Date | 11 March 1907 |
| Docket Number | No. 405,405 |
| Citation | 51 L.Ed. 722,27 S.Ct. 456,205 U.S. 86 |
| Parties | VUKO PEROVICH, Plff. in Err., v. UNITED STATES |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
No counsel for plaintiff in error.
Assistant Attorney General Cooley and Solicitor General Hoyt for defendant in error.
[Argument of Counsel from page 87 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the court:
On July 17, 1905, Vuko Perovich, now plaintiff in error, was indicted in the United States district court of Alaska third division, for the murder of Jacob Jaconi. The trial, on August 5, 1905, resulted in a verdict of 'guilty of murder in the first degree, and that he suffer death.' Motions for a new trial and arrest of judgment having been overruled, he was, on September 15, 1905, sentenced to be hanged. To review The record was filed in this court on September 24, 1906, and on application the case was advanced for hearing on January 21, 1907. No counsel appeared for plaintiff in error and no brief was or has been filed in his behalf. The case was submitted by the government on its brief. Although unaided by counsel for plaintiff in error, we have carefully examined the record and considered the assignments of error.
The testimony in the case was circumstantial. No witness saw the killing. Indeed, the first and principal question is whether there was a homicide. Jaconi was a fisherman, living alone in a log cabin covered by a tent, about midway between Fairbanks and Chena, a distance of about 4 miles from each place. On October 28, 1904, the last time he was seen alive, he was at Fairbanks between 1 and 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and had in his possession several nuggests, a Yukon gold ring, a gold chain, watch charm, and some money, part of which he peposited in a bank. In the early morning of October 29 the dogs of the deceased were heard barking, and two shots from a gun were heard in the direction of his cabin. On that day about noon one who had been the partner of Jaconi arrived at his camp and found the cabin in which the deceased had lived partially destroyed by fire and the fire still burning. In the rear where the bunk had been he saw the back part of a head, a leg bone, and the trunk of a man. The head was sunken on the chest. While the cabin was not totally destroyed, it was burned more towards the back where the bunk had been, and the ground in the vicinity of the bunk was saturated with oil. It appeared that Jaconi had in his cabin about one and one-half gollons of olive oil. On that day or the next several witnesses were at the cabin and saw the skull and the other parts of the skeleton, still smoking, and the bones so burned that they crumbled to pieces when touched. Some two weeks before the fire the defendant had said to a witness that he was broke, but knew where he could get some money if he had a partner to go with him, as there was a man who lived about 5 miles from Chena who had $500, a watch and chain, a ring and a gun. On October 15 he was at the cabin of Jaconi about daylight. At that time he said to the former partner of Jaconi, when asked what he wanted, that he was traveling and looking for a job. On October 20 defendant and a witness went to Chena and on their way stopped at the cabin of Jaconi. After leaving, defendant told witness that he had been there several times before, and that the deceased had a roll of money, and that he would lick him with an ax some day and throw him in the water, or that he would make a fire and burn everything up. On October 28, the day on which Jaconi was last seen, the defendant was at Fairbanks, and said he was going to the cabin of one of his countrymen to see if he could find anything in it. On October 29, between half past 3 and 4 o'clock in the afternoon, he arrived at a camp about 20 miles from Chena. He had a rifle and a canvas bag in his possession, a Yukon ring and a gold watch and chain. He made different and contradictory statements about the watch. On November 5 he was arrested, having in his possession $5 and a gold watch. He said that he traded a nugget chain with two men for a sack of clothes and the watch. Later a sack of clothes was found where he had left it. He said that he and his partner had made the chain, and that he had bought his partner's interest in it. His partner testified that they owned the nugget chain, and that it had never been out of his possession after it was made. Several of these articles and others found in possession of the defendant were identified as the property of Jaconi. Other circumstances of a similar nature were also...
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